Google released its SOAP API in 2002, allowing developers for the first time to begin incorporating data from Google's search results into their own non-commercial applications. Earlier this month, it quietly stopped issuing new license keys and took offline the developer's kit for the API. The SOAP API will continue functioning for existing users who already have keys, but Google no longer is devoting any development resources to the retired interface.
A Google spokesman cast the move as part of the company's ongoing purge of underperforming products from its packed portfolio. In retiring the SOAP API, Google is opting to concentrate resources on the AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and Extensible Markup Language) API it released in June.
